As regular readers of this blog will know, recently I have had operations to remove cataracts from my eyes. All has gone very well, and I am delighted to be able to say that it is hard to imagine that my distance vision could be much better. Reading is another matter, however, and it is plain that I am going to need to wear glasses for reading and other close tasks. This turns out to be a more complicated and frustrating problem than I expected.
At the moment, until I can get to the optician for proper advice and a prescription, I am managing with a pair of cheap off-the-peg specs I bought in our local supermarket. They will do in the short term, and are better than nothing. The problem I have been experiencing, however, has nothing to do with the clarity of vision. Unused as I am to having to carry supplementary specs around with me, I keep forgetting where I have put them. As yet I have not developed a routine which ensures that I can always find them when I want them. There is a constant risk that they will fall out of a pocket. The problem is complicated also by the fact that, in this very fine weather and bright sunshine, I need to carry sun-glasses around as well. My poor wife is going crazy because of my moods of irritation, and I’m sure that she believes that I am in a spiral of collapse into dementia.
As yet I have not given myself a serious test as to how I will manage when I get back to painting, although that is high on my agenda.
I hope sincerely that my planned post-operative visit to the optician will result in some workable and stable solution to the problem. Until then, however, I have to admit that I must be hard to live with.